Letter: Tax structure benefits wealthy more than those not wealthy

According to Fox News and its ilk, the greed and inequities that exacerbate income inequality are not “class warfare,” but all attempts to correct those injustices are.

Is it not a gross injustice and “class warfare” when pensions for rank and file workers disappear, while executive pensions, golden parachutes and private equity firms’ income get ever larger?

A tax structure where the very rich pay lower tax rates than those who are much less wealthy is also a real injustice. The wealthy often claim they just follow the law, but the Bush tax cuts and the myriad tax breaks they take advantage of our laws they and their lobbyists wrote.

A flat income tax, like Illinois’, hurts the poor more than the rich. And sales, excise and property taxes make the entire tax structure regressive!

Allowing political influence (and justice) to be bought is incredibly destructive. (Money is not free speech. Money is the volume control on speech that is not free.)

The (often self-serving) claim that the minimum wage “must” be set by the (often defective) “free” market is hypocritical, when big business receives all sorts of government subsidies and those in control essentially write their own paychecks.